I’m sure you’ve all seen ads recently offering car shoppers a free car with the purchase of a truck or SUV. Usually, the advertisement tells you that you must pay MSRP for the truck or SUV and then you get the compact car for free. Are these buy one get one free car deals worth it?

CNNMoney warns consumers to really do their homework and research on these deals, because they usually can get a better deal on the truck or SUV by itself with all the incentives being offered right now. They point out that these ads are usually designed just to get car shoppers into the dealership, where they can offer you a different deal.

At Darcars Ford, shoppers were offered a free Ford Focus with the purchase of a Ford truck at full retail price.

The offers are designed to fall apart easily – to become instantly unattractive – once fully explained to the customer, allowing the salesperson to gain your trust while he or she guides you to a different offer, CNNMoney reports.

And, how many people actually need a second car? Keep in mind that you have to pay to insure both vehicles and pay for maintenance and gas for both. Also mentioned in the story is that you won’t get your pick of vehicle options or colors. Dealers will use specific models they want to get rid of in these BOGO deals.

Plus, how does your car loan financing work in a deal like this? Do you carry two auto loans or just one for the truck or SUV? Do you have to pay sales tax on the free car?

In many instances, with new car incentives and rebates so high right now, if you bought both cars separately, you’d probably save more money than the buy one get one free offer. Crunch the numbers and see if a buy one get one free car sale is really worth it.

Image via zimbio.com.